Tuesday How To: Not Take The Bait

A large part of being a successful debater, not necessarily a good debater, which is a separate thing, but a successful debater, is properly baiting the hook and knowing how to recognize when your opponent has baited their own hook.

It can be hard, especially if you, like me, find debate fun. It’s easy to get so caught up in the ebb and flow that one forgets the process and the rules. The easiest way to lose sight of your goal, whatever that is, is to allow yourself to be baited.

Here are some outstanding examples:

Allofthisisbait. So is this. They exist to both spin the reader off into the land of “too rageful to think properly” and to flail and beg for attention. They are essentially screaming “LOOK AT THIS! LOOK AT THE SHINY THING! PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE SEXISM YOU ENCOUNTER EVERY DAY!”

Unless you are under the age of one year or part feline, you should really not look at the shiny thing. Trust.

The shiny thing will piss you off but it won’t help you and it will distract you from the stuff going on that you really should be looking at. Like, for example, the fact that the Shaheen Amendment passed the Senate. So now it’s on its way to the House. While it’s there it will be competing for sexist attention with the Violence Against Women Act.

So remember before when I told you that you have a responsibility to know how to contact your members of Congress? I totally wasn’t kidding. Now is the time you need to act on that responsibility. MAKE A PHONE CALL! Go right now! I don’t care how right wing, not-going-to-listen that person is. MAKE THE DAMN CALL! Then tell everyone you’ve ever met in your entire life that you expect them to do the same.

There is work to be done and we are the ones who have to do it. Let’s get to work.